. >> caller: yes i keep hearing that we are going off the fiscal cliff. as a 65-year-old texan, i don't understand why they want to cut programs from last when they're sending money to countries that don't do nothing for us. if i can live on 800 something dollars a month, getting $9 increasing in january. but these people in washington are getting hundreds and hundreds of dollars. why not take a cut in pay? why not put giving these countries all that money then we can budget what we are going to spend. >> host: that's the type of call that we get a lot. cut their salaries. >> guest: yes, we do hear this question a lot. and i think what you need to understand is that the amount of money that we spend on foreign aid is tiny. we could eliminate it entirely and would only make the slightest in this problem. just a tiny dent, not really enough. similarly, we could totally eliminate any reasons for federal workers and even cut their pay and again the effect would be tiny. so this is fun to talk about but it doesn't solve the problem because it is just a drop in